Saturday, September 29, 2018

Many years before he would become the presiding bishop’s canon for
ministry beyond the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Charles Robertson was a
comic book fan.

“I learned how to read on comic books,” Robertson said. The first he
remembers reading was “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes,” a
futuristic and optimistic fantasy in which the forces of good fight the
forces of evil.

Superhero conventions might not seem an obvious place to discuss
Jesus and the Gospel, but fans of comic books and the Good Book will
take center stage Sept. 29 as Virginia Theological Seminary hosts ΘeoCon
– pronounced “theo-con,” for theological convention. Its tagline is
“where theology meets pop culture,” and Robertson is on the list of
presenters and panelists.

Friday, September 28, 2018

From The Church Times-THE Archbishop of Canterbury paid a flying visit to the United States
last week, addressing conservative and progressive Episcopalians.

Archbishop Welby attended a conference organised by Communion
Partners, a group of conservative bishops who have pledged to remain in
the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, despite
differences with the Churches’ leaders over sexuality. The Archbishop
was accompanied at the conference, by the Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church, the Most Revd Michael Curry.

Archbishop Welby preached at evensong during the conference, on
Thursday of last week. He said that Christians should be “the true
radicals, the extremists of love, the subversive underminers of inertia,
those that turn the whole world upside down”, Archbishop Welby said.

Priests “do not just shine a light into the darkness”, but also
“confront the darkness at every point”. Christians were called to be
“children of light” in a “world of puzzlement and confusion”. The nature
of ordained ministry was “to seek to ensure that the Church shines a
light that illuminates — and yet to find oneself doing that in a
confusing world, where options and choices often have the appearance of
equal validity”.

Former South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Emeritus
Desmond Tutu has been admitted to a Cape Town hospital, his office said
in a statement on Thursday.

“The Archbishop was in good spirits after settling into his ward. He hopes to be back home in a few days,” the statement said.

It added that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate will be turning 87 in 10 days’ time.

He has been admitted to an undisclosed hospital where a series of tests will be conducted on him.The retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town rose to prominence in
the 1980s for his strong role in the opposition to apartheid rule in
South Africa.

From Louisiana-Since 2007 Saint Anna's Episcopal Church, in the Treme community of
New Orleans, has drawn attention to New Orleans' murder problem. The
Very Reverend William Terry displays the names of those murdered in the
city out in the open for the world to see and has been doing so since
2007.

"it was in 2007 there had been a large number of murders. We had just
done a major march on city hall and nothing seemed to be really
changing," said Reverend Terry. "Every year we put up a new outside
board and we have to handwrite them because a printer can't keep up."

The ongoing project is a crusade with a sharp message-- in one of the
most violent cities in the world. Reverend Terry wonders why more
churches do not get involved. However, Reverend Terry has found that
there simply isn't a space big enough to display a ravenous list of
names. He has the idea to replace putting the names outside on a wall
in favor of displaying them inside in the future, in a way that could
mimic Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. He wants to engrave the
names on gold stars and affix them up on the rafters inside of the
church's sanctuary.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral calls it a necessary step into the 21st
century, but not everyone thinks the introduction of credit card
compatible collection plates is a righteous move.

As of last
weekend, parishioners can now tap-and-go a flat $10 donation when the
collection plate is passed around at the cathedral's public services.

It's
a trial of a system already in place at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in
Melbourne, according to St Mary’s Cathedral precinct general manager
Helen Morassut – and a response to being "continually asked for
alternative ways to donate".

Despite the apparent demand for the
plates, the response on the cathedral's Facebook page to its
announcement the new technology had arrived was so overwhelmingly
negative, the post was removed.

On any weekend, the packed St Andrew's
Anglican Church in Abu Dhabi would offer a microcosm of the UAE's
multicultural and multi-ethnic society.

For the last five decades, this church complex
located in Mushrif has been the spiritual home for thousands of
Christians in the capital.

More than 50 congregations catering to
different nationalities, including Ethiopians, Koreans, Pakistanis,
Indians, Nepalese and western expats, all gather for prayers at this
church complex, that is celebrating its 50th anniversary next week.

For many old timers in Abu Dhabi, the church has been very much part of their existence.

A British expat woman, who moved to the UAE in
the 1980s, said one of her children took his first steps in the aisle
of St Andrew's Church.

"I first went to the church, which was on the
corniche. When the new church opened in Mushrif in 1984, I had just
become a mother for the first time, and I started to go to the Sunday
morning service, which was specifically for mums and kids. Some of the
people I met were to become lifelong friends," said the expat in her
60s, who did not want to reveal her name.

The Christ Episcopal Church in Ottawa is gearing up to hold services once again after a fire led to a 16-month closure.

Volunteers and church members quickly hustled through the church, 113
E. Lafayette St., Tuesday morning while prepping for Saturday’s open
house.

Vestry member Angie Miller walked around while placing hymnals and
prayer books in the pockets on the back of pews while other volunteers
were setting up the holy water receptacle near the church’s entrance.
The church’s organ was scheduled to be tuned up on Wednesday in
anticipation of returning guests.

Warden Mary Grzywa was assisting with the final pieces of the
restoration but paused to speak with The Times and take in the work.

I haven’t assembled data to back this up, but it surely feels that
there is a rising and nearly cresting wave of diocesan bishops in the
Episcopal Church who have, within the last year or so, announced their
retirement or resignation and called for the election of a successor.
This means that several dozen priests across the church — doubtless a
number expressed in triple digits — are busy answering essay questions,
recording videos, making plans to attend discernment retreats, and
preparing to answer questions at walkabout events. And in the affected
dioceses, clergy and lay delegates are in discernment, reading essays
and making notes, watching videos and forming impressions, talking with
their colleagues, all in an effort to decide how they will vote at the
electing convention.

I am long past being a rookie bishop, but not yet, I hope, grizzled
and wizened to the point of acerbic cynicism. So, from this putative
sweet spot of seven-plus years of experience not yet singed by burnout, I
offer these observations for the benefit of electors and candidates
trying to discern their possible vocation to the episcopate. They are
predicated on the assumption that, inside several priests in the church
at this moment, there is a future bishop waiting to be discovered and
liberated to act according to that vocation, just as within some blocks
of marble or wood, an artistic masterpiece lies waiting to be discovered
and liberated by the right tools in the hands of a skilled sculptor.
What are some of the characteristics that might help identify a bishop
in the making? What might the lay and clergy electors of a diocese in
transition look for as they prepare to vote?

A long-term member of our church approached me just before service
this week with a serious look on his face. Every pastor has had that
moment. Service is about to begin, what is this about? He has never done
this before, so I honestly didn’t have a sense of what was on his mind.He proceeded to ask if I knew a particular pastor in Denver – there
was a connection between us and some mutual friends. I didn’t, but he
pastored a good church. He then told me that years ago the pastor had
been in an accident, and ever since had battled depression. I got a
sinking feeling about what he was going to tell me.Sure enough, the pastor committed suicide last week. It is the second incident like this I have heard of in the last 3 weeks.What came next was one of those moments that pastors have too few of.
He then told me, “It seems to me that most pastors go along doing a
really good job, but only hear the criticism and negative things.” I
told him that this is often the case. He continued, “I just want to tell
you that I think you are doing a great job.”

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

A chaplain
ministering to refugees is going to be stationed in Calais by the Church
of England for the first time, amid concern over a rising number of
migrants settling around ports in northern France.

Canon Kirrilee Reid will
leave her current post as the rector of a rural church in Perth and
Kinross to boost the presence of the Church's Pas-de-Calais Chaplaincy
team.

The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, Rt Revd Dr Robert Innes:
"I am delighted that we have been able to appoint Kirrilee to this
strategic post at a crucially significant time for the Pas-de-Calais
chaplaincy and the people it serves.

"Kirrilee brings extensive experience of the Church, a passion for
social justice, and sustained involvement in working with migrants and
refugees to her new ministry."

The post of chaplain and refugee
projects officer is intended to boost co-ordination between both sides
of the England Channel, to ensure migrants and their families receive
the care and support they need.

Several mayors across Tasmania have embraced the
proposed changes to the Burials Act, as many Tasmanian families face
uncertainty over the planned sale of Anglican churches and cemeteries
around the state.

In
response to community concerns about the sale of cemeteries, the State
Government released draft legislation with amendments to the Burials Act
that it hopes to introduce to Parliament before the church finalises
its asset sale list at the end of the year.

The legislation
proposes that any intended sale of a cemetery must be made public and
have a certificate of compliance from a regulator, who would be able to
issue infringement notices of up to $16,300 for non-compliance with
maintenance, record-keeping and access requirements.

From Uganda-The Anglican Bishop of South Ankole Diocese, the Rt Rev
Nathan Ahimbisibwe has asked Christians to develop a culture of hard
work, to free themselves from what he called the “yoke of misery.”

The Prelate argued that work was a Biblical ethos, since God himself
worked when he was creating the world and also assigned human beings to
be procreators with him.

“The call to mission puts it to us to preach the gospel in word and
deed. But we must also be mindful to work to ensure our dignified
survival and self-sustenance of the Church. If we work, God will bless
our labour,” Ahimbisibwe said.

Ahimbisibwe excited Christians when he told them that much as he was a
prelate, he continued to practise his trade of farming, which he said
had given him even more joy in his episcopal ministry. “Further to
pastoring God’s flock, I am also a farmer with over six acres of
pineapples. Working hard has enabled me to do my episcopal ministry even
more conveniently.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spoke of the vision, wisdom
and light that the Gospel and followers of Jesus can bring to “a world
of puzzlement and confusion” in sermons during recent stops on a trip to
the United States.

Welby, head of the Anglican Communion, was in Dallas, Texas, last
week to participate in a vocational conference, and he preached Sept. 23
at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York with a message to spread the
wisdom of the Gospel to the world.

“The reality of Jesus is seen in a holy people of prayer, who desire
God from the bottom of their hearts,” Welby said at Trinity Wall Street.

“The search for God-centered wisdom from above, the holy
understanding of what to do now, begins with our identity, which is
found truthfully in Christ alone,” Welby said. “That will only happen
when we are outward-looking.”

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

We, clergywomen in the Episcopal Church,
object to the comments by John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator
from Missouri and a priest in the Episcopal Church, regarding the
accusation of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey Ford against Brett
Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

In your article, Mr. Danforth said he feels “terribly sorry for Kavanaugh”
and considers Dr. Blasey’s allegations against Judge Kavanaugh to be a
tragic repeat of the damage to Justice Clarence Thomas’s reputation
after Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Thomas.

No
one, not least a priest of the church, should publicly shame, blame or
question the motives of women who step forward to report instances of
sexual abuse; Mr. Danforth should instead be calling for an in-depth
examination of Dr. Blasey’s allegations.

With
the beginning of my 10th year of serving as the Bishop of the Episcopal
Church in Minnesota on the horizon, and after much prayer and
conversations, the Spirit has led me to believe that it is time to begin
the process of calling the 10th Bishop of Minnesota.

The
question inevitably is, why now? ECMN is clear about its calling to
engage God’s mission of becoming the Beloved Community. In every corner
and in countless neighborhoods faithful Episcopalians are participating
in the Jesus movement through building relationships and cultivating
partnerships across the great state of Minnesota.

ECMN
is incredibly healthy. We are blessed to have great clergy and lay
leaders, a phenomenal Team of Missioners and very competent leaders at
all our affiliates. Our Elected Bodies and our Mission Areas are
functioning at a high level of collaborative leadership. We are, and
have been for a number of years, very financially solid; including being
debt free on all ECMN properties.

An Anglican church in the U.K. has transformed itself to become LGBT
inclusive following the suicide of a 14-year-old girl who feared the
church would not accept her.

The church, St. James and Emmanuel in
Didsbury, has been honoring the memory of Lizzie Lowe, the teenager who
killed herself in 2014 over fears she wouldn't be accepted, by taking
part in gay pride events and declaring that it welcomes all and accepts
same-sex relationships.

This transformation has angered some parishioners, however, with 25 members so far having left in protest, Manchester Evening News reported.

Leaders at the church said that they received messages telling them that they will "go to Hell" for their decision.

From Anglican Journal-Archdeacon Larry Beardy, a Cree priest, educator and former executive
archdeacon of the diocese of Keewatin, was consecrated first Indigenous
suffragan bishop of the Northern Manitoba Area Mission—a new grouping
of parishes within the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of
Mishamikoweesh—at a ceremony at Sagkeeng First Nation, Man., September
23.

Beardy’s is one of two new Indigenous suffragan (assistant) bishop
positions created by the synod of the ecclesiastical province of
Rupert’s Land this May,
meant to help in providing pastoral care and spiritual leadership to
Indigenous people from northern Ontario to Saskatchewan. His area
mission will span that part of Manitoba that lies within the Spiritual
Ministry of Mishamikoweesh, but he will also assist the bishops of the
dioceses of Brandon and Missinippi in the diocese of Saskatchewan, in
providing ministry to Indigenous people in these areas.

The Rev. David Boase has presided over enough baptisms and funerals
in Alton, Illinois, that the town began to feel smaller than it really
was, full of people the priest has watched grow up or grow old.

He has been a priest at two Episcopal churches for the past 14 years
in Alton, a southern Illinois river town on the banks of the
Mississippi, and when he arrived from England in 2004, he said he knew
fairly quickly that he never intended to leave. It was, “as we say about
priestly work,” his calling.

“It was a heartfelt sense of belonging, and that was a large part of
the impetus of my seeking citizenship,” Boase, 69, told The Washington
Post. “I just wanted to belong in the fullest possible way here in
America, as a responsible citizen.”

But that's all scheduled to come crashing down Friday, when Boase, a
legal permanent resident, expects to be removed from the country by an
immigration judge because of a violation 12 years ago. At issue? A
single vote cast in 2006.

Boase was placed in removal proceedings last month, roughly a year
after he admitted during his citizenship interview with U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services that, yes, he once registered to vote, and
yes, he once cast a vote.

Monday, September 24, 2018

Believe it or not, I have been writing columns for The Japan Times
for more than 30 years. Often I have uttered quite controversial views
about the world that a tolerant editor has kindly carried — my hope
being to get some reaction from readers and provoke a good debate.

I
have to confess almost total failure in this regard. Despite having
seen around 500 articles published, the feedback has been minimal —
except in one notable case.

This was when I rashly criticized bishops of the Anglican
Church for treading too far into politics — I think it was in the early
1990s during a British general election. For some reason this sparked a
real furor throughout Japan and a veritable flood of responses. I do not
know how many Anglicans there are in Japan, but it seemed a great many,
all of them writing to denounce my views and saying that, on the
contrary, the views of religious leaders on political issues were most
welcome, and a lot more valuable than those of many politicians.

Well, here we go again. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, head
of the Anglican Church of 100 million souls, has been plunging boldly
into political issues recently, but this time I am going to take a
different line. In this totally altered world in which we now live, and
in times such as these when all the old verities are under attack, moral
bearings have been lost, no one knows whether news is true or false,
uncertainty prevails and ordered government almost everywhere is under
challenge, I welcome the voices of all thoughtful people, whatever their
status. And if they can couch those views in ways that get reported and
spark intelligent debate, so much the better.

From Christian Examiner-Terry Gross, the host of NPR's Fresh Air, has been taking advantage
of the good weather during the summer months to wage a war on
Christianity. We will see whether the assault slows down for winter, but
I am writing just days before the official start of autumn and there is
no sign of any change of tactics yet. Today (18 September) it was an
interview with Linda Kay Klein, the author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Women and How I Broke Free.

In truth, however, every time Gross addresses
evangelicalism, the theme is: I once was a conservative Christian,
realized the movement was sinister and oppressive, and now I'm an
ex-evangelical who has broken free. I have a day job and do not listen
to Fresh Air regularly, so I am not able to provide an exhaustive list.
Highlights, however, include the episodes on The Miseducation of Cameron Post (18 and 25 July) which were about how evangelicalism is sinisterly wrong and oppressive.

Michael Arceneaux's I Can't Date Jesus a
few days earlier (23 July), on the other hand, was about how
conservative Christianity is sinisterly wrong and oppressive. A week and
a half before that it was another breaking free story: "An Evangelical
Minister's Change of Heart on Abortion" (11 July). To come back closer
to the present, 14 August was on Karen Piper's memoir, A Girl's Guide to Missiles. Gross found the escaping-evangelicalism part of her story particularly worth probing.

From South Carolina with video-Members
from St. Martin’s In the Fields Episcopal church packed their bags
Sunday afternoon to head over to New Burn, North Carolina to assist with
hurricane relief efforts.

Ten members left Columbia with four packed trucks and a trailer with disaster relief items to help with a week’s worth of work.

Mitchell
Smith, Rector St. Martins in the field Episcopal Church said, “We just
have a community that is about serving people and as a church, we
believe we are the hands and feet of Christ in the world and it’s our
opportunity to live that out and serve.”

A family from the New Burn area contacted Rector Smith and asked for a place to stay during the hurricane.

After the devastation, some parts of New Bern faced, they decided it was their calling to help those in need.

The subject of death, dying and grief has intrigued Mary Davila since
she was at least an undergraduate student at the University of
Richmond, willingly getting up to take an early morning class on the
topic during her senior year.

The lessons from the class intrigued Davila – and have served her
well in her current career. Davila has been an Episcopal priest for 13
years and served as a children‘s minister before she went to seminary.
Today, she‘s assistant rector at Christ Church in Raleigh and the
co-author of a new picture book called “Grandpa‘s Tent” about grief.

Davila lives in Raleigh with her husband and two girls, ages 8 and 5.

I checked in with Davila to learn more about her book, her work and
her advice for parents about how to talk to their young children about
death. Here‘s a Q&A …

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Germany, 1934. Eighteen months after Hitler’s rise
to power, Plough’s founding editor warned of the threat of a second
major war – and foresaw that the international peace movement, which he
had championed, would be powerless to stop it. His reflections remain
unsettlingly relevant today.

Does pacifism suffice? I don’t think it is
enough.When over a thousand people have been killed unjustly, without
trial, under Hitler’s new government, isn’t that already war? When
hundreds of thousands of people in concentration camps are robbed of
their freedom and stripped of all dignity, isn’t that war? When in China
and Russia millions starve to death while in other countries millions
of tons of wheat are stockpiled, isn’t that war? When thousands of women
prostitute their bodies and ruin their lives for the sake of money,
isn’t that war? When millions of babies are murdered by abortion each
year, isn’t that war? When people are forced to work like slaves because
they cannot otherwise feed their children, isn’t that war? When the
wealthy live in villas surrounded by parks while other families don’t
even have a single room to themselves, isn’t that war? When some people
build up enormous bank accounts while others earn scarcely enough for
basic necessities, isn’t that war? When reckless drivers kill tens of
thousands of people each year, isn’t that war?

Over five years ago I came to work for Princeton Seminary after
spending 32 years as a parish pastor. One of the questions I frequently
receive is “Do you miss serving a congregation?”

I love serving
our seminary and am absolutely devoted to its mission. But of course,
there are some aspects of being a parish pastor that I miss. By far,
what I miss most are the funerals.

It surprises people when I say
that, and it’s actually been a surprise to me as well. But as much as I
enjoyed my years as a parish pastor, the funerals are the only thing
that have ever tempted me to look over my shoulder at the decision to
leave congregational ministry.

I don’t miss the evening committee
meetings that can last too long and accomplish too little. I don’t miss
the small-time politics, the denominational bureaucracy, or the grumpy
members who were never going to be happy but who just wouldn’t leave the
church. But being with someone through the process of dying, offering
compassion to the family as they place their loved one into God’s arms,
conducting the funeral, and working through the grief—it’s the purest
form of pastoral ministry I know.